herbs, lunch, Mains, Vegetarian/Vegan, wine, wineries
by madeline2020

Italian Sausage Bake – A Simple Dish with Variations

Baked sausage and potatoes with a selection of vegetables

Sometimes you want to putter at the stove but not have any real heavy lifting, just a bit of prep before filling a casserole dish and baking something to fill the house with the promise of a hearty dinner! Once I got started with this recipe, I decided to add a number of ingredients. The final product is a yummy, stick to your ribs dinner that leaves enough for lunch the next day if you’re lucky!

Baked sausage and potatoes with a selection of vegetables
Tasty Italian sausage, melted cheese, and roasted potatoes

Ingredients:

  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 2 large Italian sausages cut into slices
  • ¼ cup lemon infused olive oil
  • 2 large potatoes peeled and sliced
It doesn’t take long for the potatoes to brown up.
  • ½ cup sliced mushrooms
  • 1 bag frozen country vegetable mix (corn, carrots and green beans)
Bag of frozen Country Blend Vegetables
Sometimes frozen veggies are faster!
  • ½ cup white wine (I used Pink Lady Apple Wine from Russell Orchards near Crane’s Beach)
  • ½ cup chicken stock
  • 2 TB dehydrated red onion
  • 1 TB dried basil
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • ½ cup Italian blend shredded cheese

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
  • Heat 2 TB oil in large deep skillet over medium heat and cook the sliced sausage til browned on both sides. Remove sausage from oil and place in baking dish.
Potatoes and onions browned in the pan
The dehydrated onions are perfect when someone in the house doesn’t like onions
  • Add ¼ cup lemon oil to the pan and cook sliced potatoes until nicely browned on both sides, adding the dehydrated onions during the final minutes. Remove from pan and add to baking dish
  • In oil remaining in the pan, cook mushrooms, mixed vegetables and dried herbs until the mushrooms are cooked through. Add to your baking dish.
  • Combine the wine and chicken stock, and add to ingredients in the baking dish, stirring gently until mixed.
  • Sprinkle cheese over the top. (if you want to freeze it at this point and bake later, you can)
  • Bake in preheated oven until the cheese is browned and the juices are bubbly.
  • Serve!

Make it vegan, vegetarian, or alcohol-free: Feel free to swap out other combinations of vegetables, switch out wine for more stock, and even make it vegan with vegetable stock, meat-free sausage crumbles and dairy-free cheese. It’s a simple casserole, with that extra step of caramelizing a few items before they get added to the baking dish. In that way you get a bit more depth of flavor.

During the current lockdown we don’t always get out for fresh vegetables, and as we head into winter, that’ll probably be a continuing challenge. But there are so many great frozen options out there. I usually pick up different medleys and options whenever we shop so we’ve always got vegetables, and we’re not always eating the same ones over and over.

If you are looking for more recipes, I hope you’ll follow my blog:

Usually I share stories along with my recipes, but for this one you’ll need to check out the quick post about our trip to Crane’s Beach, when we didn’t have a lot of time, or a lot of energy, but wanted to get some fresh air anyway!

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